From the AIDS-Ridden Slums of Kenya, a Child's Smile Brightens a Cameraman's Life

For the past six weeks, Colin Crowley (Founder and Owner of Newbeat Productions and a volunteer with AFCA) has been living on the coast of East Africa in Mombasa, Kenya.

"I have been shadowing two nurses who spend three to four hours every day walking on foot through some of the poorest slums in Mombasa to visit HIV positive patients," says Crowley.

Most patients live in one-room houses with walls made of sticks and mud, roofs made of corrugated tin, and no running water. They have no means of transportation other than their own two feet. They live day to day with no money to pay for doctors or medicines. The AFCA provides these children with life-saving medication, known as ARVs.

"Every time I meet one of the children who are alive today because of AFCA’s work, I wish everybody who has ever donated to AFCA could be there with me to see in person the life that their donation has helped saved. It is really an overpowering moment to meet, and talk, and play with a young child who is living, playing, going to school, and thriving because of the generosity of people living in another country thousands of miles away."

One of these children is two year old Abraham Ramadani, who contracted the HIV virus from his mother through childbirth. Abraham is taking ARVs provided by AFCA. He and his mother live together in a small mud-walled house in the Bangalaa Slum just outside of Mombasa.

"Every time I have seen Abraham," Crowley says, "he has been smiling, friendly, and happy to see me, even when he was suffering from a case of Malaria."


"His eyes looked heavy, he wore a pained look on his face, and I could tell he wasn’t his normal self. After I reached down to shake his hand and greet him with the Swahili greeting for children, “Mambo!” I felt the top of his forehead and it was scorching with fever."

"I took out my camera asking his mother if it was all right to take a picture of him like this and she said it was fine. When I put the camera before him, Abraham instinctively let out a laugh and made a big smile for the lens. Then he stopped and the ache of the Malaria showed on his face again. Still, he gave it another effort and, with no prompting from his mother or me, pushed out another big smile before the ache and fever caught up with him."

"“Here I am,” I thought, “standing before a two year old kid living in some of the worst conditions imaginable, HIV positive and suffering from a bout of malaria and he’s giving it his all to smile for the camera when I take a picture of him.” Moments like this just take me aback and catch me off guard. They make me forget myself and wonder how we can do more for this kids."

"A week later I ran into Abraham again and his malaria was gone, he was running around laughing as he played with one of the neighbor kids. I caught his attention by calling out his name and he ran over and stopped for about five seconds to smile and say hi – just enough time to let me snap a picture before he ran off to play again."

A child's smile can brighten a life. Abraham, and children like him, will likely brighten many more.

To learn how you can help children with AIDS and HIV in Africa, visit the AFCA website.